Black Robe

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19th century
A01=Wilkie Collins
A32=Mint Editions
abbey
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Wilkie Collins
automatic-update
British literature
Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FBA
Category=FY
Category=FYD
chastity
Classic novel
COP=United States
Crime
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
duel
English writer
epistolary novel
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
Gothic fiction
Language_English
London
madness
Mystery
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
priests
PS=Active
Religious themes
Romance
softlaunch
Suspense
Thriller
Victorian era
Wilkie Collins
Yorkshire

Product details

  • ISBN 9781513135878
  • Dimensions: 127 x 203mm
  • Publication Date: 31 Mar 2022
  • Publisher: West Margin Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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The Black Robe (1881) is a novel by Wilkie Collins. Written toward the end of Collins’ career, The Black Robe shows brilliant flashes of the author’s trademark sense of mystery and psychological unease, which made him a household name around the world. Recognized as an important Victorian novelist and pioneer of detective fiction, Wilkie Collins was a writer with a gift for thoughtful entertainment, stories written for a popular audience that continue to resonate with scholars and readers today. While visiting northern France to attend the funeral of his aunt, Lewis Romayne, while playing cards, accuses a local gambler of cheating. Offended by the young Englishman, the man challenges Romayne to a duel, but sends his son in his place. Against the odds, Romayne—unaccustomed to fighting—manages to kill the boy, saving his own life. The screams of his younger brother, however, never leave Romayne, not as he returns to Yorkshire a changed man, not for the rest of his life. Back home, he attempts to regain a sense of normalcy, caring for Vange Abbey, the family estate, and making social trips to London. In the city, he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Stella Eyrecourt, whom he marries. Meanwhile, a vindictive priest looking to gain control of the Abbey hatches a plan to convert Romayne to Catholicism and trick him into signing the property over in his will. Wracked with guilt and trusting to a fault, Romayne walks right into his trap. Beyond its sensational plot, The Black Robe is a masterpiece of mystery and social critique for seasoned readers of Victorian fiction and newcomers alike. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Wilkie Collins’ The Black Robe is a classic work of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist and playwright. Born in London, Collins was raised in England, Italy, and France by William Collins, a renowned landscape painter, and his wife Harriet Geddes. After working for a short time as a tea merchant, he published Antonina (1850), his literary debut. He quickly became known as a leading author of sensation novels, a popular genre now recognized as a forerunner to detective fiction. Encouraged on by the success of his early work, Collins made a name for himself on the London literary scene. He soon befriended Charles Dickens, forming a strong bond grounded in friendship and mentorship that would last several decades. His novels The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868) are considered pioneering examples of mystery and detective fiction, and enabled Collins to become financially secure. Toward the end of the 1860s, at the height of his career, Collins began to suffer from numerous illnesses, including gout and opium addiction, which contributed to his decline as a writer. Beyond his literary work, Collins is seen as an early advocate for marriage reform, criticizing the institution and living a radically open romantic lifestyle.

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